Thank You
by SweetKerosene
Summary: When you don't want to let someone love you completely because you are afraid to hurt them, and the hurt is out of your control.


**AN: This was kinda a story I had bumbling around in my head for a while. I saw a movie with this type of background theme (I don't know the name of the movie) and there was a very specific scene in the movie that I didn't understand completely but thought it was very sweet and this is my variation of it. I also am not sure completely of this piece but I like it. Hope you do too.**

**Disclaimer: All recognizable places or characters are not mine.**

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><p>This was kinda a story I had bumbling around in my head for a while. I saw a movie with this type of background theme (I don't know the name of the movie) and there was a very specific scene in the movie that I didn't understand completely but thought it was very sweet and this is my variation of it.<p>

He remembered when they found it. They had been fooling around on the lower level of the lab while the Halloween party went on upstairs.

His hand went still and she saw the confusion in his eyes. When she moved her hand to where his had been there was no mistaking the lump there. The rest of the night was spent in a somber mood.

There was a biopsy, and waiting, then the doctor told them stage 2 IDC. Invasive Ductal Carcinoma.

Booth felt the bile rise in his throat. All these years she had been worried about a recurrence of his tumor.

Brennan simply asked about the treatment options.

The air on the ride home was thick. At least that's how Booth felt. Brennan didn't speak, she just looked out the windshield, hands folded in her lap atop of a smorgasbord of brochures given to her by her doctor.

The day before chemo started she was hell-bent on going back to work immediately. By the time they got to the Jeffersonian that day she had changed her mind.

The day became short and the nights long as the cancer and chemo ate away at her. One day he came home to her standing in front of the mirror, her hair fallen by her feet. There was no expression. When he walked up behind her, an apology on his lips she simply turned and walked out.

She told him that night that as they lay in bed, by the standards of society she was beautiful. He knew that. He just worried that she would no longer see it.

She refused to wear a wig, but her hat collection grew.

The months grew colder and Booth couldn't help but think it was fitting. She never spoke about it, not the way it should be spoken about to one's husband. It was always science and "What is, is. It can't be changed, only dealt with."

She never let him comfort her. It almost seemed like she never needed comforting. But he knew that she cried in the middle of the night sometimes, when she thought he was sleeping. He'd never tell her he knew.

Booth sat on the edge of the tub, his hand absentmindedly in the water. He asked if she wanted her back washed, standing to help her sit forward. She pulled her and out of his grasp leaving him dumbfounded.

"What's wrong?" Her eyes met his and there was a coldness burning there.

"I'm tired, Booth." She said holding his stare "I'm tired of the doctors and the hospitals. I'm tired of the pills, and the chemo and the radiation, and the pain! I'm tired of my head being cold all the time! I'm tired of the coddling, and the pitying looks! And I'm tired of you!" She ended on a yell, tears streaming down her face to mix with the bath water.

Her hands came up to sides of the tub pushing herself up, she swung a leg over the edge of the tub, but her weight and momentum sent her tumbling to the ground.

She lay there sobbing. For all the things she was tired of, for the things she just said, for the time lost, for herself and for him.

Booth wrapped a towel around her, then picking her up from the cold ground, taking her to the bedroom, rocking her gently.

Her crying was hard but between the sobs and the coughing, and the sniffling he could make out "I'm sorry's" and "I love you's" and "I don't want to die"

His hands stilled on her and his eyes filled. "You're not going to die."

A scoff and a shuddering breath "People die from this, Booth, and I'm not getting better."

He pulled back from her to look into her eyes. He waited until her crying slowed and her eyes fixed on him entirely.

"And if you do, I will be there with you until the very end.

And then she cried again, because she believed him. He cried with her, because he loves her.

He held her until she fell asleep, and then held her some more. He held her when she woke up and just lay there in his arms. Finally taking the comfort in him that she needed so desperately.

They lay there until the night began to fall upon them and they grew tired once again, when she mumbled drowsily to him.

"Thank you."

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><p><strong>Hope you liked it. Feel free to leave feedback, or questions if anything didn't sit quite right with you (if you want to, I mean) =)<strong>


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